Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1887-12-23

south, sending them back word at eacn
station passed till the cause of the trouble
was found. He had only got as far as
Calhoun when Andrews passed. and Fuller
in moment after. The Latter hardly
came TO II stop before he saw the operator,
and called him, and without II word OF
explanation seized his hand and dragged
him on the train In the run up, how
ever, he made all the necessary explana
tions and wrote out the following dis.
patch:
FULLER'S TELEGRAM
"To Gen. Ieadbetter commander at Chat
tanOOga:
"My train was captured this n. m. nj
Big Shanty, evidently by Federal soldiers
In disguise. They are making rapidly foi
Chattanooga, possibly with the idea of
burning the railroad bridges in their rear.
If / do not capture them in the meantime,
see that they do not pass Chattanooga.
CIVILIAN a. FULLER.n
This he gave to the operator, saving
'Don't speak to anybody or lose secont
till You put that through to Chattanooga.
Jump for the platform when ! slow up,
for | must push ON and keep those
Yankees from getting up Il rail or burning
the bridges
1t was terribly quick work The opera.
tor was at home in the Office and almost
before Fuller had cleared the shed he was
at the desk and the first words were over
the wires. Whether they had time to gei
the whole message over before the cut il
very doubtful and not material, for the
first two lines would answer every pur.
pose. Had Fuller stopped at this point,
and himself went into the Office long
enough TO set the operator at work it is
almost certain we would have had the rail
up, and then all the bridges above that
point would have been burned; though it
is still possible that enough of the message
might have been pushed through to secure
our arrest in Chattanooga This was
another striking instance of the many
narrow margins on which this day hinged.
As Fuller pressed on toward the great
tunnel, even his resolute heart almost
died within him, while all his party began
TO blame him for foolharduess lie
feared to plunge into its dark depths 1t
was still filled with smoke from our en-.
gine; and he well knew that if we jumped
off at the far end and hurled back our
locomotive at him, it meant horrible
death to every one on his train: and he
was by no means sure that we would not
do it, Mr.. Murphy, who had so ably
stood by him all the while, here counsced
prudence, pointing out all the pcrilS of
an ambush. But Fuller realized as APP
parently no one else did the desperate
need OF pressing on to save the road: and
he had made so many escapes and been
so marvelously favored, that kind of
fatalism took hold of him. He deter
mined not to lose minute, no matter
what the danger might be. 1t may as
well be said here that no prudent and
common sense Kind of pursuit, such as
possibly any other man would have EN-
ployed, could have had the slightest
chance of success. But even Fuller
quailed as they dvcd into the cloud of
smoke that hung around the entrance of
the tunnel, and held his breath for a few
seconds they We're still at fill speedl till
he saw with sigh of relief CLEAN of
light ahead and knew that there was no
other engine now in the tunnel! On he
pressed, for he knew the value of the
Chickamauga bridges ahead as well as
we did